Nel ventre

It is an illustration project for a long story by Sergio Claudio Perroni, developed in collaboration with the author.

The story revolves around a tense and nervous dialogue taking place inside the belly of the Trojan horse on the night before the massacre—a pivotal and decisive moment in the history of Greek mythology. It is a confrontation between warriors as they await dawn, ready for the ambush.

The characters include three men and one woman: Odysseus, Neoptolemus, and Epeius, Achaean leaders torn between tension and fear. The woman appears as a goddess—or rather, the most sensual and human of divinities: Athena.

Through the listening eyes of a simple soldier, the story explores the jealousies, struggles, and doubts of the three heroes as they wait for the great wooden horse in which they are hiding to reach Troy and fulfill their destiny. A destiny that Athena—the woman-goddess—seems to both illustrate and command, seducing them with her allure, terrifying them with blood, and revealing the deception between what they want to know and what they are trying to hide from themselves.

“Nel ventre” (In the belly) tells a mystery rooted in myth but unfolds to address the deeply contemporary theme of the human soul, torn between the fear of dying and the fear of acting—and therefore, of living.